Monday, June 18, 2007

Back from Ocean City

The show was amazing -- it was the first time I'd done the Art's Alive show in Ocean City, MD, and I don't have any customers in that area, so I had no idea what to expect.

The weather was perfect -- it was overcast on Saturday and cool, so people flocked to the show instead of the beach. I didn't slow down until about 45 minutes before closing. It was just amazing! I had one of the best sales days I've ever had.

Sunday was much warmer and sunny, so more people hit the beach. Plus, it was Father's Day, and there was a boat race going on, too. It was a lot slower but still a better sales day than expected.

Overall, a fabulous show, well run, lots of fine art, beautiful location on a lagoon -- a definite "do again!"

The best part of the weekend, though, was watching some major strides with Zack. If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know that Zack has Sensory Integration Disorder, which means in a nutshell that he has strong aversions to many textures -- walking barefoot on grass or sand was almost like torture for him. He's been through a year of Occupational Therapy, which HUGELY made a difference, but he is still very cautious about new things. His food aversion (texture, temperature, smell, etc) is still very strong, and we're also working on that to this day.

With that said, this was a great sensory adventure weekend for Zack. This was really the first time he's ever walked on sand without freaking out. It took a little while for me to coax him out of his shoes, but once they were off, he was intrigued. We bought a bunch of fun plastic beach toys with us, and he LOVED digging and making sand castles with Mommy.

I wanted him to come with me and get his feet wet, and it took him watching me for a bit and seeing that I didn't get swept away for him to get interested. And once we went to the water's edge -- oh boy, he couldn't get enough. One wave wet him to his waist and he laughed like he was being tickled. We held hands and let the water rush over our feet and I felt that this was what being a mom was all about.

2 comments:

As well, I'm glad you got some great experiences with him that were previously out of the question.

My dd has high-functioning autism; no one can tell, you'd have to be around her alot to pick it up (some of it is subtle, and yet, really, not subtle).

Her sensory integration dysfunction stuff is a big part of the problems we do have, though.

I was so tickled that her first grade teacher helped her figure out a way to pre-emptively protect her ears from the school bell (VERY loud, and I don't have the disorder!) Torture for her, who once went rigid and trembling in pain in my arms from the family singing Happy Birthday off key on purpose (okay, we all make jokes about that being painful, but for her, it literally, physically WAS).

I wish we had OT for her. Or any other services! I get so tired of the back-and-forth with her over food, and other things.